LONG READ Jamie Osborne heads up the Irish family who may one day rival the Barretts

In his 16 seasons of professional rugby, Brian O’Driscoll insisted Garry Ringrose was the most impressive young player he had ever seen coming through the ranks. “Immediately,” O’Driscoll said, “you could see he got it.”

Ten years on from training with the legendary centre Carton House, now well established with Leinster and Ireland, I asked Ringrose if he wanted to pass the torch. Was there anyone, since he broke through in 2015, who trained with the senior team and blew the doors off? Ringrose named two, both from Kildare.

“Sam Prendergast was in with us for the training camp in Portugal [in January] in that kind of apprentice role,” said Ringrose. “He has that willingness to try and learn and that humbleness, knowing he wants to get better. At the same time, he can show some really cool bits of skill under pressure.”

“Jamie Osborne is also impressive physically, and imposes himself well.” Ringrose added. “For Leinster, he took to playing in Europe so well. It wasn’t a bother to him, didn’t faze him. He was unreal, and had proper impacts on the game. You kind of forget how young he is, as he has already established himself so much.”

It was a lovely touch then, when Andy Farrell asked Ringrose to present Osborne with the number 15 jersey before his Ireland debut against South Africa. Having established himself as a centre with Leinster over the previous two seasons, and staving off Ringrose to start a Champions Cup final alongside Robbie Henshaw, plenty eyebrows were raised when Farrell selected him to start as full-back in a Test bow against the world champions.

Back at Naas RFC, Osborne’s home club, Mick Cahill was fully behind the call. “When he was selected, it got a lot of people talking. I was laughing when they said he shouldn’t play full-back. He played there all through his youth career. His running lines are unbelievable, like the one he ran to break the line and set up Henshaw for the Conor Murray try against South Africa.”

Cahill coached Osborne from Under-7s to senior rugby. He only got into coaching when his son started playing, and the club asked if he could get involved. He also coached Osborne’s school team at Naas CBS and worked for a number of years as a CCRO (Club Community Rugby Officer) with Leinster.

I knew from an early age Jamie had something about him. He had this way of running with the ball, and taking these lines, that stood out.

“Everyone in the club is extremely proud of Jamie. The Osborne name is one that is synonymous with Naas – his uncles and grand uncles would have been involved here for years, playing, coaching and being on boards. Jamie is such a down-to-earth lad; always has been. He’s a lovely fella, no messing about. No bulls**t. He was out with a few of the lads recently in Naas, and they were all slagging him, ‘Ah, here’s the big man’, and he was embarrassed. He’s humble. He just wants to be one of the lads, nothing special. Several of the lads he grew up playing with are now on the Naas senior team. That was the only thing he really missed out on, playing a lot with them. Leinster were quick to take him up there (to Dublin), and he hasn’t looked back.

“He was down last season, to help out with the junior and senior teams here. He came down to do some jersey presentations, too. If I ring him and he’s in the country and available, he’d always come down to help with the club or school.”

Osborne is the eldest of five brothers, with Andrew, the next oldest, also on the Leinster books. Andrew Osborne represented Ireland U20s and last season, made four senior appearances with Leinster. Jamie’s three other siblings all play with Naas. There is hope yet Joe and Fiona Osborne may have produced a rugby brotherhood to rival New Zealand’s Barretts.

Osborne started for Leo Cullen’s Leinster in the Champions Cup final defeat by Toulouse (Photo By Sam Barnes/Sportsfile via Getty Images)

“The younger lads have seen Jamie and Andrew breaking through, and the work they put in to get there,” says Cahill. “They’re an inspiration not just for them, but all the young players here. They can look at them and think, ‘He’s no different to me. He grew up here, his parents are from here, they just live up the road’.”

Naas has produced Ireland stars such as Geordan Murphy and Jamie Heaslip in recent decades, with Jimmy O’Brien, Adam Byrne and former Ireland Sevens captain Billy Dardis also coming through the club

Osborne was part of the Leaving Certificate ‘class of 2020’ who never got to take their final exams before their time at secondary school came to an end. For a young player with deep-seated aspirations of making it as a rugby player, the early months of that Covid-19 pandemic were tumultuous and worrying. Everything had been turned on its head.

It suits the way we play, he’s bright, he gets himself on the ball a lot in an organising way.

Leinster were already well aware of Osborne’s potential, though. In November 2018, he grabbed everyone’s attention playing for an Ireland U18s Club selection against an Italian Academy XV in Treviso by throwing a dummy and ghosting through a gap en route to a 40-metre try. Osborne impressed in underage outings for Leinster and their ‘A’ side. He was selected, aged 19 and two months, to make his senior debut away to Scarlets in January 2021. Such was the upended nature of rugby at the time, he had six Leinster senior appearances before he lined out for the delayed 2021 Under-20 Six Nations. Osborne played all five games at full-back, but would only make two starts there over the next three seasons for Leinster.

With Hugo Keenan allowed to step away from Ireland XVs duty to chase Olympic glory in the sevens, it gave Farrell a chance to experiment. He could have selected O’Brien, Ciarán Frawley or, at a push, Henshaw against South Africa. Instead, he went with his gut, and what he was seeing in training reps.

“Jamie has a presence,” Farrell told reporters ahead of that first Test. “It suits the way we play, he’s bright, he gets himself on the ball a lot in an organising way. His communication is very good and accurate, he has nice soft hands and he can hit a line as well. To add to that, he’s deceptively very quick, good in the air, very athletic and he’s got a big left boot on him, as well.”

There were a couple of defensive lapses in that Osborne debut, with Farrell later noting his more experienced teammates did the debutant a disservice by dropping their standards. In attack, though, the 22-year-old looked sharp, and scored a fine try in the corner. Come the second Test, Osborne delivered in all aspects, particularly under the high ball and on counterattack. As Cahill noted, he was prominent in the build-up to Murray’s first-half try, feigning to loop around wide before cutting in to break the Springbok line.

Such was the ease at which Osborne took to the Test full-back role, we had former Ireland international Luke Fitzgerald, on The Left Wing podcast, suggest “it was a big mistake” for Keenan to loosen his grip on the jersey.

As for where Osborne’s future lies, Cahill believes there is only one backline position in which he would not prosper.

“In Andy Farrell’s back three, wingers are as much full-backs as they are out on either wing,” he says. “They are asked to get involved a lot more. Jamie would have played a bit of 10, too, and you could see he is confident stepping up as first receiver. He has that vision. He can play anywhere across the backline. The only position he probably couldn’t play is scrum-half.

“It will be interesting to see where Leo Cullen plays Jamie with Leinster, next season. Same with Sam Prendergast.”